1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to helm, throttle and directional controls for small craft such as outboard, inboard, and inboard/outboard powered boats and similar water vehicles. More specifically, the present invention concerns a safety device which fits between an actuating member and an actuated member in helm, throttle and directional controls.
The actuating member may be a control drive shaft connected to the steering wheel of a boat, and the actuated member may be a driven shaft coupled to a control cable for the boat's steering device.
The actuating member may also be a control drive shaft connected to a throttle control lever and/or a reverse control lever for the boat's powerplant, and the actuated member may be a driven shaft coupled to a throttle control cable and/or a reverse gear control cable.
2. Description of Related Art
In connection with helm controls, it is a basic requirement that undesired and unintentional changes in the setting of the steering device should be prevented, especially for safety reasons. In fact, should the helmsman fall accidentally overboard, the water flow around the steering device is liable to act such that the steering device left to itself swings into an ever tighter turn, thereby the boat will circle around the man in the water on a closing spiral course and become a positive hazard.
Powerplant controls also require that no undesired change be applied fortuitously to any pre-selected settings.
A most widely employed method of preventing undesired and fortuitous changes to the setting of the actuated member has been that of braking the rotational movement of the actuating member as by means of a slip clutch between the actuating and actuated members. However, this tends to make the actuating member stiffer and tiring to operate, and in any event cannot provide failsafe unalterability of the setting where, for example, the forces acting on the actuated member are large ones.